Darkglass / NeuralDSP moving into hardware???? UPDATE: The Quad Cortex

[Kev]

4 hours ago, bjelkeman said:

I have preordered, sold enough gear to cover the whole thing. Now it is just the waiting left to do. 

Snap!

Seeing stacks and stacks of them in the Darkglass factory on Dougs Insta earlier made me happy.  So close now 😁

[CameronJ]

@bjelkeman @Kev

Are you guys both in the first preorder shipment?

[bjelkeman]

4 hours ago, CameronJ said:

@bjelkeman @Kev

Are you guys both in the first preorder shipment?

I am, but that is essentially been combined with the second now as I understand it, because of supply chain issues (Covid induced). But that is ok. I think it will be worth the wait.

Edited October 1, 2020 by bjelkeman

[Kev]

5 hours ago, CameronJ said:

@bjelkeman @Kev

Are you guys both in the first preorder shipment?

Yup. Although as ^^ said, Tier 2 will quickly follow I should imagine, providing the parts issues they have is resolved fully enough.

[Rick05]

I’m really intrigued to see how much affect this has on people buying pedals vs all in one units.

would love to hear some reviews when they ship

[EBS_freak]

12 minutes ago, Rick05 said:

I’m really intrigued to see how much affect this has on people buying pedals vs all in one units.

would love to hear some reviews when they ship

No difference I would say. Helix, AxeFx and Kemper haven't stopped people from buying pedals.

At the end of the day, you can get really specific in your choice of pedals... with the muliprocessor units, you are limited to the algorithms in them. If you don't like the algorithms, you are out of luck.

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Rick05 said:

I’m really intrigued to see how much affect this has on people buying pedals vs all in one units.

would love to hear some reviews when they ship

It's a good question. The reason that a lot of folk feel compelled to buy additional pedals is often to complement their multifx in areas where the multifx lacks the processing / emulation power to match dedicated pedals. The landscape changed with the arrival of Helix in what I'd describe as the mid-range price bracket i.e. between Zoom at the budget end and Axe and Kemper at the top end, and we saw a LOT of BC'ers offloading / downsizing their pedal boards as they were finding their Helix's getting close to their dedicated pedals / being perfectly "good enough" for a lot of fx. 

For me the obvious remaining gap with Helix where it doesn't hit the mark was with filter and synth - partly as it doesn't have a synth engine onboard (like a SA C4 or Panda FI does) but is only a synth emulator. But I've recently come across the Boss SY-1000 which plugs this particular gap and, when combined with the GK3 pup, could very well work as a stand alone pedal board for me. I'm guessing that the QC will be a level up further still from the Boss, but at nearly twice the price I sincerely hope it will be!

[Cuzzie]

4 hours ago, Rick05 said:

I’m really intrigued to see how much affect this has on people buying pedals vs all in one units.

would love to hear some reviews when they ship

Some of these units do absolutely stellar things, and I would dearly love something like that, of possibly the rabbit hole of a fractal FM3. Even if you wanted synth type sounds etc the helix does a more than decent job if you spend time with it. If you really really want synth, nothing replaces keys and a Moog for example.
 

Ultimately, I use drive and compression, that’s about it so it’s wasted on me, but playing around would be loads of fun 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Cuzzie

[dannybuoy]

1 hour ago, Cuzzie said:

Some of these units do absolutely stellar things, and I would dearly love something like that, of possibly the rabbit hole of a fractal FM3. Even if you wanted synth type sounds etc the helix does a more than decent job if you spend time with it. If you really really want synth, nothing replaces keys and a Moog for example.
 

Ultimately, I use drive and compression, that’s about it so it’s wasted on me, but playing around would be loads of fun 

Even if you just use drive and compression, one of these units can work out cheaper than separates if you like crossover bi-amping like the DuG pedal/amp, and then you get all the possibilities of using various guitar amps on the top end!

[Cuzzie]

4 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

Even if you just use drive and compression, one of these units can work out cheaper than separates if you like crossover bi-amping like the DuG pedal/amp, and then you get all the possibilities of using various guitar amps on the top end!

Don’t disagree with that at all and maybe cost wise it’s probably correct, but yeah I could sell off the dUg amp and dUg pedal and PSA, maybe get a clean power amp for a one of these units, or get a powered speaker, etc. To change to that set up for me is no point where I have my perfect amp and cab combination, within a drive/clean sound I like to change the basses I have for something different.

If I had unlimited time and funds - I’d have them all!

[krispn]

I’d hazard that the main users of the neural, fractal, full fat helix are primarily using it for the amp cab sims and then the rest. Most of the gear podcasts etc it’s guys wanting to minimise their rig weight or have to use iem/fly dates or no amps on stage gigs and these units provide a solid foundation to get a sound which works. This might be more guitarists but that’s the overriding vibe I’m getting. 

[bjelkeman]

On 29/10/2020 at 12:16, EBS_freak said:

No difference I would say. Helix, AxeFx and Kemper haven't stopped people from buying pedals.

At the end of the day, you can get really specific in your choice of pedals... with the muliprocessor units, you are limited to the algorithms in them. If you don't like the algorithms, you are out of luck.

I am probably the exception, but time will tell. I have been stripping my pedal supply down to a few, a Darkglass B7KU and a Harmonic Booster. The Booster will probably go as well when the Quad Cortex arrives. Keeping the B7KU for the "oh stinky poo" moments when you must have something that works when stinky poo hits the fan. No more compressor, other distortions, octave, EQ etc. The quality of the B7KU/VMTU plugin and the Parallax, which I have both for recording, tells me that the QC will be enough for me. I think.

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, bjelkeman said:

I am probably the exception, but time will tell. I have been stripping my pedal supply down to a few... 

Nah, you've got plenty of good company - loads of multifx users have stripped down their pedal boards after getting familiar with their multis. You just need to browse the Helix Stomp thread! 

[bjelkeman]

They are nine more Quad Cortex to win in the next nine days, one each day, in this giveaway by Neural DSP. Can be found here (referral). Quad Cortex Daily Giveaway - Black Friday 2020

[Kev]

57 minutes ago, bjelkeman said:

They are nine more Quad Cortex to win in the next nine days, one each day, in this giveaway by Neural DSP. Can be found here (referral). Quad Cortex Daily Giveaway - Black Friday 2020

Cheeky!

[Cuzzie]

Anyone know what they have captured on the Tech21 PSA they have listed under bass preamps

There are 10 bass amps and 40 guitar ones

[bjelkeman]

19 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Anyone know what they have captured on the Tech21 PSA they have listed under bass preamps

There are 10 bass amps and 40 guitar ones

I don't think we now that yet. 

[Cuzzie]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CITjaGznoRR/?igshid=g0u8rpj9jals

what do y’all think?

[CameronJ]

Touch screen looking nice and responsive. My wallet is still trembling.

[Cuzzie]

It’s a difficult sound to nail - it’s done ok, I wouldn’t say exactly on the money though - I’ll let Cam tremble

[CameronJ]

39 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

It’s a difficult sound to nail - it’s done ok, I wouldn’t say exactly on the money though - I’ll let Cam tremble

Oh I couldn’t care less for the tone  that sonic realm would be gathering dust on my hypothetical Quad Cortex. I just like how they’ve progressed with the UI snappiness.

[Kev]

46 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

It’s a difficult sound to nail - it’s done ok, I wouldn’t say exactly on the money though - I’ll let Cam tremble

Obviously the album tone has been processed a LOT, but that pretty much nails the live tone.  I don't think you'd get closer with a muff and animato.

The 2nd half of the riff on the 2nd string is the giveaway, that tone is spot on.

[Cuzzie]

1 hour ago, CameronJ said:

Oh I couldn’t care less for the tone  that sonic realm would be gathering dust on my hypothetical Quad Cortex. I just like how they’ve progressed with the UI snappiness.

You and your UI’s....🤣🥰

[bjelkeman]

https://neuraldsp.com/news/quad-cortex-user-manual-1-0-0
 

The Quad Cortex manual is out. 

[EBS_freak]

A manual but no product. Perfect 👌